Trust
by Sins of Angels
Summary: Eugene always thought that Happily Ever After should carry less of a death threat.


"There must have been a trick to it," he kept saying. He had been pulling on the little trap door for ten minutes now, and it wasn't budging one bit. Rapunzel had tried to help, then just sat back and watched intently, and now she was staring out the window, not even paying him any attention.

"Forget it," she finally said. Eugene paused in his struggles and frowned.

"So, what, we climb back down the tower?" He hadn't taken his arrows with him this time, and the sharpest things here were kitchen knives and that dagger that he was pointedly avoiding.

Rapunzel just nodded. "The old way," she said, as if it explained everything. She was holding on to the long, winding streak of brown hair that littered the room.

"Oh," was all Eugene could think of to say. "But, it's not... I mean, before, yeah, you could do a lot with it, but it was magic, right?"

Rapunzel didn't say anything as she went around the room to find the start of her hair, and tied it securely to the stairs. She then walked over and hung it on the hook she had always used. Finally, without turning around, she responded. "You're right. We should go down together, the quicker the better." She waited for him to walk over to the window. It took him a moment as he went to inspect the knot and how strong it was, then carefully made his way over. He craned his neck to see her face. She wasn't crying, or looking upset. She just looked serene. Almost at peace.

He grabbed hold of the brown hair, noting how it already felt less soft, more like straw than the silk it had been before. She climbed onto his back and wove her arms over his shoulders and her legs locked around his waist. "Ready?" he asked, and felt her nod. Carefully he started to descend, looking at where he stepped against the tower and sliding down slowly. He felt her move and for a moment he froze in place, letting her get more confortable as she moved around. She stopped, and he couldn't tell if she had actually moved from how she was holding on before, until he looked at the hair in front of him. Her left hand was gingerly holding on to the long stands, gently weaving her fingers around it right between where his hands were. He stared at it for just a moment before he continued down until he could touch the ground. She carefully untangled herself from him and, after the smallest of pauses, let the hair go. It swayed away from her due to the wind.

She turned around and, without a word, walked over to where the cloak had fallen. In the shadow the gold seemed very dull, and it wasn't until she picked up the garment that she realized that it was covered in dust. She froze, hands tightening, and then carefully folded the cloak so that no more dust fell out. She put it in the basket she had taken, moving the scarf full of food to the side. "We can go," she said quietly, knowing that Eugene was waiting on her politely. She could see him staring out of the corner of her eye.

"Well, we should see how far Max wants to take us, the longer we have him around the easier it'll be," he said, looking around. The horse seemed to have wandered off outside of the clearing again. "I figure the guards will take a little time to trace me all the way back here, we can just head towards the nearest port and hop on the first ship away fr-"

He was interrupted by her stare. "No, we're going back."

"Back to what, exactly?"

"Back to the kingdom. We need to go to the castle."

His mouth slacked open and his eyebrows drew together for a moment. "Well, we can't," he said simply.

"Why not?"

"Why? Because I'm a criminal, Rapunzel! It's not like they'll just let me back into the palace with a pat on the back, especially since I just broke out of there on the way to the noose!" He stared at her as she seemed to process this by looking at the basket, staring at the cloak she just put in there.

"So she wasn't lying? What you've done was bad enough that they would kill you?" He only nodded, the pregnant pause of shame causing the moments of hesitation. She seemed to turn this over in her head before continuing. "It doesn't matter." The relief was all over his face. "I'll tell them all you've done for me, and you'll be fine." The smile fell, and his face displayed confusion. She saw this and added, in a simple, matter-of-fact voice, "I'm the lost princess."

"You're... you're what?" he finally said, breaking the silence that had settled between them after her statement.

"I'm the lost princess. The one everyone's looking for, the reason behind the lanterns being sent up every single year on my birthday."

"Listen, I'm not sure that having your birthday be the same as the princess's really qualifies as a compelling argument in the face of a court or the king or anyone, really. Do you have any other proof, something that the old lady had hidden?"

"Gothel," Rapunzel supplied. "Just her reaction when I confronted her. She stole me away, just to stay young forever. So we'll go back to the castle and we'll just tell them that I'm her, the lost princess, and that you rescued me and you should be forgiven all your past mistakes. I'll give you a royal forgiveness myself."

"Royal pardon," he corrected through his shocked trance. Of course it made sense that she was the princess. She was the right age, and Gothel was the right kind of crazy. But still... "Listen, Blondie, I don't think... what, what's wrong?"

Carefully, she relaxed again before answering. "Please don't call me that." Her entire body had become rigid as soon as she heard the word.

"Oh. Right, sorry. I still don't think that'll work."

"Of course it will," she said confidently. "We just need to find Maximus and get going before it gets too dark out." She began looking around and Eugene had to take a hold of her arm to get her to look at him again.

"We're not going back to the castle," he said firmly. She looked confused.

"Look, I know how these things work, I've read about it before. All I have to do is say you've done something that makes your past not important, and the townspeople will cheer and all will be forgiven."

"It won't work like that. This isn't a book where everything works out just because you wish it would."

"But it will work out, because I'll say it will. My father will be the king, and he has the power."

"Dammit, Blondie, I am not going to go back and be hanged!" He yelled at her, his voice echoing in the clearing. He noticed he was gripping her arm too tight and let her go, not meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry," he added, quietly. "I know you just asked-"

"It-it's ok," she said quietly. She was avoiding his eyes as well.

"No, it's not. I'm sorry. It's just, I've died once today. I'd like the second time to not happen for a very, very long time." He put his hand on her cheek and turned her head until he could look into her eyes. "Especially now. Especially since we're finally together."

"But it won't happen," she said earnestly. "I won't let it, it'll all be alright because I'll tell everyone that you saved me and it'll all be forgiven!"

"It won't work, Rapunzel! How are you going to prove to them that you're the princess? They haven't seen you in eighteen years, the one who kidnapped you and the only witness can't really step up for questions and your hair isn't even the same color anymore!" He could see that he should have stopped, see that with every point she got more uncomfotable, but he couldn't let her idealism kill him because she'd blame herself for it for the rest of her life. He didn't just die for her to die because of her, that's not how it should work.

She countered her uncomfortableness with determination. "I don't need any of those things. They're my parents! They'll just know!"

"I don't see how they possibly could," he said in the most comforting way he could. He could see tears start to well up in her eyes, and she used her free hand to grab his arm desperately.

"They will! They'll know because they're my parents and they've been looking for me my entire life! They'll know because I'm their daughter and my mother will be able to look at me and know that I'm hers and that I'm home!" She paused, staring straight at him with all of the hope she could gather. "Isn't... don't parents just _know_? Real parents?"

"I..." he started, caught off guard by the intensity of her plea. "I wouldn't know," he finally said.

"Then why can't we try?" she asked. "Don't... Don't you trust me?"

He pulled her in, hugging her small frame tightly. "Alright, Rapunzel. We'll go back, and you'll get me pardoned." He could feel her smile underneath him, and, for a moment, he thought that maybe, just maybe, she was right.

He remembered Maximus's face when they told him thay'd be going back to the castle. Rapunzel had missed it, looking off in the distance as she tried to figure out how to hold the basket and ride the horse while holding on to Eugene. The horse had looked at him, right at him, and his heart sank further. Maximus was about to protest, to make some kind of noise, but Eugene quickly put his hands up and rejected any protest that she would hear. Then he looked at her, and as their eyes met she smiled. Carefully, he walked over, placed a hand on the back of her neck and pressed his lips to hers again, his breath catching in his chest as he felt her smile into his kiss.

"Alright, Rapunzel. Let's go meet your family." She looked at him again, and in her smile, all was right with the world.


End file.
